Budget strains Barrow

Posted: Sunday, August 22, 2010

By Merritt Melancon

With more than 50 percent of Barrow County's budget going to public safety, commissioners struggle to cut millions of dollars from already-slim budgets without taking large chunks from the sheriff's office and Emergency Services department.

The same struggle has played out for the past three years all over Georgia. Local leaders, faced with dismal revenue projections, aim to cut from the largest budgets - for public safety - first. County residents rally to the aid of their police and fire departments, and elected leaders find the money somewhere else - until there's nowhere else to cut.

Over the past month in Barrow County, budget negotiations became heated when the suggestion circulated that commissioners might close a fire station and cut the sheriff's office budget by 10 percent. All the departments in Barrow County, including the sheriff's office and Emergency Services, already have cut their budgets by 15 percent to 20 percent over the past two years.

"When you look at the paperwork, (the sheriff's office and the Emergency Services department are) the biggest; we have the lion's share of the budget," said Sheriff Jud Smith. "So by cutting us, you get the biggest bang for the buck, you can cut us and not have to cut anybody else."

A crowd of residents and firefighters gathered at a commission meeting earlier this month to protest proposed cuts, which commissioners denied they were considering.

In the end, commissioners cut all county departments by 5.5 percent, and will lay off seven employees and raise taxes by one millage point before considering any more cuts to public safety.

While this is only a proposed solution, it does represent an end to what is becoming an annual battle of wills Barrow County.

"The bottom line is we all work for the citizens," Smith said. "The arguing, the bickering, the acrimony between politicians - it hurts the county."

The tug-of-war between counties and public safety agencies is so widespread, the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and the Georgia Sheriff's Association have held joint meetings to try to come up with strategies that their members can use to avoid confrontation.

Houston sued commissioners when they tried to force him to cut his salary and institute a special millage rate to fund his department.

The Georgia Constitution provides that commissioners have to fund the sheriff's office from the general fund but can't tell the sheriff how to administer his department's budget.

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld a local court's ruling that commissioners were improperly meddling in Houston's budget.

Sometimes the pressure to keep public safety funding intact leaves commissioners feeling strong-armed, said Barrow County Commission Chairman Danny Yearwood. He would not let the county be "held hostage" by firefighters and sheriff's deputies, he said.

"Sooner or later, you can't keep cutting departments that have already been cut and cut," Yearwood said. "If I shut down our sewer system, people are going to die. If I shut down our water department, people are going to die. How are (public safety departments) more critical than those departments? It's time for people to realize that we're all in this together, and Emergency Services is not separate."

The Barrow County Sheriff's Office and Emergency Services Department do have more personnel than some surrounding counties, according to handouts Yearwood distributed earlier this month.

Smith argues that Yearwood is comparing apples to oranges in trying to justify future cuts to his department.